The Webelos

Last night, I gave an artist talk to an adorable group of young men on their way to earning an artist badge as Cub Scout Webelos. Usually, when scout type groups want to earn their artist badges, they come tour the studio here, at the house. It's easy to talk when so may visual aids are at my fingertips. We tour the studio, talk about different paintings, see the mural, the mosaics, and on and on. This was my first time to actually go to a scout club house, so naturally, I brought props along for visual impact and stimulation.

Of my own work, I brought a still life, a landscape, and a portrait for show and tell. Here I am talking about painting portraits. I figured they would be interested in a portrait of a boy about their same age.

They were eager to participate. Here we are discussing  primary and secondary colors on the color wheel.

Aren't they cute? Here they are sweetly paying attention.

Afterwards, several parents mentioned how attentive and well behaved the boys were during my talk. Apparently, that doesn't happen very often. (?) Come to think of it, they did seem mesmerized. They were really sweet.

As well as the evening went, my favorite part of the whole night was at the very end. One of the little boys came up to personally thank me and in his innocent enthusiasm, gave me a heartfelt big hug. That was pretty great.

Before and After - The Quest Continues....

Yep. The Amazing Reese and I are still on a quest to find the best fried chicken in town. Here are some things we've found on our search.

Wabash Feed Store - this is what chickens look like before they are fried. Don't they look tasty?  They are available for purchase to cook and eat in all their yummy fried goodness....or raise them as pets.

Max's Wine Dive - - fried chicken served with champagne, mustard greens, other stuff I don't remember, and spicy honey dipping sauce - really good spicy honey dipping sauce.

Saint Arnold Brewing Company's new lunch service - fried chicken served with Elissa IPA (or beer of your choice on tap), mashed sweet potatoes, succotash, and an iceberg wedge salad with bleu cheese dressing and delicious bacon crumbs. Two thumbs up!

Haven - fried chicken-to-go paired with a zinfandel eaten in the comfort of home. Let's not talk about the side dishes. Apparently I'm picky about sides. I didn't know this about myself.

Richey's Country Cookin' in Pasadena - chicken fried chicken served with sweet tea, fried okra, black eyed peas, and cornbread muffins. It was confusing ordering chicken fried chicken. I honestly thought the waitress was loopy, but sure enough, it was flat, de-boned chicken breasts that were fried. It was weird.....just like it's weird that my eyes are closed in this picture. It was a very sunny day.

We've got a few more restaurants to try. It's a hard job, but somebody's got to do it.

Grandmother Oak

The last few weeks have been all wobbly. I hired a high school neighbor to help move the art studio upstairs which involved moving a lot of other stuff downstairs. And what I thought was right, wasn't, and so I've spent several days reconfiguring furniture placement to get the best light scenario for painting in this new upstairs studio space. Hopefully, everything is in its right place and creating can begin in earnest.

This painting is called Grandmother Oak. It's a tree in the back yard of one of my favorite childhood friends. She lives in Louisiana now, but for a very few sweet years, we were neighbors in the small town of Centreville, Mississippi together. We were the kind of friends where our mothers took pictures of us naked in the bathtub together.....the kind of friends where we had matching Batman t-shirts....the kind of friends where everything we did together was magical. We told secrets under the magnolia tree in the front yard. We laughed. We made promises to each other that we couldn't possibly keep. We didn't know it at the time, we were children, but we were kindred spirits. Still are. Thank you, Margaret. Maybe we're not the same silly girls we once were, giggling under the dining room table while our mothers had coffee.....but, maybe we are.

Grandmother Oak is 24" x 30" oil on linen.

Nonsense Limerick....but aren't all limericks nonsense?

I sit here and my mind goes blank
..........................yep, still blank
for what does one say
on a day like today
"Oh, look! There goes a dog who's named Hank!"

I realize that this is ridiculous
for who will read something so frivolous
remember it's spring
that must be the thing
something something something meticulous

I'm waiting for thoughts with a clue
but so far it's gobble-de-goo
what happens a lot
when my mind has not thought
is I hope for a thought residue

A thought residue gives one hope
just like Frances will be a good pope
but really it's clear
that I just want to hear
a rhyme with the word cantaloupe

I promise that this is the end
such nonsense does sometimes offend
that's not my objective
to be ineffective
I'd rather be everyones friend

Blind Drawing

My friend, Michelle has started an online creative group called Off the Shelf - a somewhat fortnightly (every two weeks) e-mail to prompt creative action. (You can join, too!) The first assignment was "blind drawing". Blind drawing is when one looks at the something to be drawn without looking at your hand or paper as you draw the object. Since there was leftover paint and dirty brushes from the Sweetheart Roses painting, and the still life was still set up, that's what I drew. Below was the five-ish minute result of only looking at the object and not looking at my right hand while drawing.

And below is what happens when I want to use up all the paint on my palette. I figured it couldn't hurt to "finish" the drawing (while looking this time).

Back in 2008, I challenged myself to paint for 21 days straight, hoping to develop a positive habit of painting on a regular basis. All sorts of things happened during those 21 days but no habits were formed, good or bad. I did paint a lot (duh) and toward the end of it, one of the paintings was given away to a happy reader of this blog by yours truly. I'd like to do that again - not the non habit forming 21 days of painting, but the giving away part. Whoever wants this painting can have it. Free. Leave a comment here, message, tweet @THEsarahhazel, e-mail (sarah at sarah hazel dot com), or tell me to my face to let me know that you want me to add your name to the hat (or something). In one week, all the names of the people who want it will go into a hat (or something) and I'll blindly draw the winning name.

This is another version of the sweetheart roses that was painted the other day and is 11"x 14" oil on cardboard. Remember, it's free!

Sweetheart Roses

All of our daughters have moved out of the house, for now at least. And lately I've been feeling cramped and slightly irritable in the art studio. So I'm searching the house for a new space, but instead of moving furniture around immediately, I will be setting up temporary space in several rooms in the house to get a feel for the natural light before moving furniture all over the place. This sweetheart rose painting is from trying out a north facing upstairs bedroom. So far, I like the room better than I thought I would. It's a large room with haint blue walls, very soothing. It looks out to the front yard and sidewalk, and in the afternoon I can watch the foot traffic going to and from the elementary school at the end of the block. It's nice to not feel so isolated. Painting is such a solitary pursuit that oft times I get lonesome. At least if the studio is in this room, I can feel more connected to the outside world, just from watching living and breathing human beings walk past. Another huge plus, this room has windows that open and have screens -- very helpful in airing out all of these oil paint and turpentine fumes.

The painting is 14" x 18" oil on linen.

Hydrangeas Times Two

The painting on the left is from last week, is painted with my usual paints, and is 9"x 12" oil on canvas. (I mainly use Old Holland, Williamsburg, and Holbein brands.) The painting on the right is from today and is 8" x 10" oil on linen with some sample paints that a sales rep gave me last Friday at an Art Expo at Art Supply on Main Street. The paint samples are a brand that Vikki (the store owner) at Art Supply has been encouraging me to buy, but art supplies are expensive, and it's hard to justify buying a new brand of something when I'm not sure that I'll like it or what the outcome will be on canvas. So it was wonderful to have the opportunity to try these Michael Harding's artist oil colors in the starter set and try one M. Graham & Co. azo yellow. The Michael Harding's starter set comes with ultramarine blue, scarlet lake, yellow lake, yellow ochre deep, burnt umber, and titanium white-2. I really like the way the paint glides on the canvas - it felt like the painting was painting itself. From day one of painting, from ease of use alone, I'd say the painting was a huge success.

Now, my usual palette wasn't necessarily represented in the color choices of the paints in the starter set, so as far as I can tell, that's the major discrepancy in the colors of the two paintings. It will be fun in the not too distant future to try the same colors side by side in two different paint brands. I'm really looking forward to that experiment. Who knows? Maybe, thanks to the kindness, thoughtfulness, and generosity of a sales representative, and thanks to Vikki for hosting the Art Expo, I've just discovered my new favorite paints?

Art Stuff

Here's a list of art related stuff I've done lately but haven't blogged about:

1.  Going to the Prado Exhibit at the MFAH - twice. And I cried both times. The first painting in the exhibit was Vulcan Forging the Thunderbolt of Jupiter by Peter Paul Reubens. Peter Paul Reubens!!! It was my very first time to see a Reubens in person and I burst into tears -- both times I saw the painting. It was also my first time to see Velesquez, El Greco, Goya, and Sorolla paintings. To say that I was moved is an understatement. I'd love to go one or two more times while the exhibit is in town if anyone wants to go with me. It's on view through March 31st.

2.  After the Prado exhibit I bought a book called Sorolla: The Masterworks by his great-granddaughter, Blanca Pons-Sorolla that I've been reading....and to be honest, looking at the pictures. That's probably the best part about art books as a grown-up -- looking at pictures. Another great thing about this book is that it's written in English. The other book on Sorolla that I have is in Spanish, and even though I understand some of it, the book in English is so much easier to read.

3.  Going to see the movie "Bert" at the Menil, a documentary about the life of artist Bert Long, who recently passed away. The movie talked at length about Bert's continual financial woes. My favorite line in the movie was when Bert said that if he was given $2 million for an art project that it would take him $3 million to complete it. He also talked about his file boxes of rejection letters....that's pretty common in the art world but we artists don't talk about it very often.

4.  Going to a volunteer party at Lawndale where I participated in and won a cake in the cake walk. So fun.

5.  Going to the MFAH for the Picasso Black and White opening night extravaganza. I really appreciate Picasso's early work and later work -- it's all the stuff in between that I find hard to like. What was interesting about this, though, was seeing how he applied paint and used ink and chalk all in the same paintings (on some things). And seeing works that I had only seen in books that are flat in books, but in real life are quite alive. I enjoyed that part of the exhibit. Opening night was PACKED.

6.  Going to an exhibit of Bert Long's paintings at Houston Baptist University. This was my favorite painting, oddly enough called Road Kill. It's quite large, 72" x 96" x 4" and is acrylic on canvas with a frame of acrylic, metallic gold and silver paint, tire, reflectors and mirrors on white pine. Why does it never occur to me to use tires and reflectors in my paintings? The show came with a catalog that I'm slowly reading, too.

 

7.  Going to Houston Center for Contemporary Craft for the Misfit Cup Liberation project, where people bring an unused cup of their own and trade it for a newly crafted one. Each participant writes a story of why their cup was discarded. It really was a liberating experience.

8.   And finally, going to the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft for "Touch in Real Time" where artist Holly Hanessian takes a small piece of clay and puts it in a handshake. It forms to the shape of both participants hands and a (hopefully) human emotional connection is formed as well. It was a plus that the artist was so engaging and easy to like.

The Dancing Tulips

Winter gives me brain freeze. Really. Cold weather and I don't mix well. All of my energy is spent trying to concentrate on keeping warm that there isn't much room for anything else in my frozen brain. That is to say that it's hard enough to figure out what to paint on a regular basis....forget it on any day below 75 degrees. (Yes, that seems to be my threshold.) 

Because of the difficulty in figuring out what to paint (lots of muddled thinking), I went to the florist. It's always a good back up plan to go to the florist when one can't think of what to paint. Except that I forget (because of the brain freeze) that flowers are not the easiest subject matter, especially tulips. Tulips are highly susceptible to light and heat -- a very wiggly flower, opening and closing and moving with the sun --  not still at all. They dance.

This painting is 9" x 12" oil on linen. 

Paperwhites and Tulips

Here is where I start saying something about painting.....*crickets*

And here is where I finish saying things about the artistic process and what not. (I'm going to go take a nap.)

These paintings are 8" x 8" oil on canvas.

More Fried Chicken

My quest to find the best fried chicken in town has led me to two more places -- Hay Merchant and Barbeque Inn - yes, fried chicken at Barbeque Inn. From what I've tasted so far, it might be hard to beat Barbeque Inn's fried chicken. Ah, it was boiling lava hot fresh but served with a bland iceberg salad and some other forgettable side. Truly, I've forgotten what the other side was.

Barbeque Inn - hot, crispy, tasty

But the Hay Merchant - oh my goodness - the fried chicken was crispy and under seasoned EXCEPT that it was served over the most amazing macaroni and cheese I've ever tasted in my life....and I don't even like macaroni and cheese! That macaroni and cheese has an addictive chemical in it that makes me crave it fortnightly.

Hay Merchant - best macaroni and cheese EVER!

The waiter also recommended a lovely sour cherry flavored Belgian beer that matched perfectly with the buttery, creamy, cheesy macaroni. I can't stop thinking about that macaroni and cheese. mmmm. Hay Merchant's fried chicken might be under seasoned on purpose just so that it doesn't overpower the macaroni and cheese. Who knows? I'm definitely going back to both places but am still on the lookout for other restaurants to try. Any more suggestions?

Final thought - if these two restaurants would combine talents, Barbeque Inn's fried chicken and Hay Merchant's macaroni and cheese, it would be a winning combination.

So Long, Bert

This blog entry is a repost of one I did on July 11, 2011.  One of the highlights of my life was not only having my art selected for an exhibit by artist Bert Long, but actually meeting and visiting with him briefly. Sadly, he passed away yesterday.

Here are some links reporting his passing:
Houston Chronicle
Culture Map
Glasstire
Robert Boyd

The following is my blog post:

This past weekend was the opening reception for Archway Gallery's 3rd Annual Juried Competition. It was SO much fun.


The Amazing Reese and I got there relatively on time, which gave us time to take the requisite photo of the painting and me posing in a gallery setting. Expecting a crowd, the gallery very wisely had fans positioned throughout the space in order to facilitate air flow, which lent itself to more than one Marilyn Monroe moment with my full skirt.

The juror for the show was Bert Long, a Houstonian and internationally acclaimed artist. As stated before, I've long been an admirer of his. When Archway Gallery sent out the artist call for this show, the main reason I entered was so that Bert Long would see my work. Then when "Cottonwood" was selected, I was beside myself because here, finally, was my opportunity to meet Bert Long.


(Can you tell how excited I am? That's Bert Long!) Devotedly, I followed him around like a puppy dog waiting for the opportunity to introduce myself and thank him for selecting my work for the show. Had I been an actual puppy, it would have looked like my tail was wagging, but that was just the gallery wind blowing up my skirt.


I'd like to think that we became fast friends the moment we met, but the grown up in me knows better. He very graciously spent some quality time with me talking about the painting, the technique, the brush strokes, etc., and how he selected "Cottonwood" not only because it's worthy on its own today, but because he sees promise in my artistic future. (!) The critique was very humbling and affirming at the same time.


The gallery had the right idea about the fans. The opening reception was absolutely packed. Several groups of our friends came out in support. It was wonderful to see everyone enjoying the art -- not just "Cottonwood", but the whole show. Bert Long did a fantastic job of selecting the pieces in the exhibit, showcasing artistic skill, heart, soul, messages, and variety -- lots of variety.


It just so happens that Bert Long and I have mutual friends, he's a neighbor of some of our long time friends, and I'm a neighbor of one of his long time friends. Of course, as this was pointed out to him, he briefly and silently studied me, peering over his glasses, like he couldn't decide if I was crazy or not. (I'm not -- really.) Bert Long didn't know it, but we've been one degree of separation for years.


The delightful evening wouldn't have been possible without the Amazing Reese. Not only is he adorable arm candy, without his supportive enthusiasm, it wouldn't have occurred to me to consider being an artist as a "career". It's incredible to think that all of this has happened in the last six years. (And that Bert Long talked about my FUTURE as an artist! So cool.) Thanks, Amazing husband Reese.


At the end of the evening, the very approachable Bert Long, with a little nudge from his lovely companion, Joan Batson, agreed to pose with me in front of "Cottonwood". I couldn't have been happier.

Human Hamster Wheel

Not just for hamsters anymore, local artist and new friend James Ciosek created a human sized hamster wheel as part of a series of his called Icons and Symbology, which will include ten or so total pieces when the series is complete. It's on display at Lawndale Art Center until March 2nd.

I was there last Friday as an enthusiastic volunteer for opening night and heard James tell people about this hamster wheel all night long but darned if I can remember exactly what he said. The gist of it is that he plans to super size everyday objects so that our perception of their use and purpose is challenged (or something like that.) What I can say about it is that this is a FUN interactive art piece and if you get the chance, by all means sign the waiver, jump in, and channel your inner hamster.

Little Boy Blue

As adorable as this little boy is on the outside, he's just a sweet on the inside. He's curious, thoughtful, considerate, playful, and warmly engaging. It's been a delight to get to know him.

This is a 16" x 20" oil on linen commissioned work. Typically what happens for commissions is that we get together for a photo session, and those photos are used as reference for the portrait. While I thoroughly enjoy painting portraits from sittings, to get a child to sit still long enough to paint would be a chore for all involved, so in these cases, reference photos save the day.

If you have an adorable little person in your life who you'd like to see immortalized in paint, give me a shout. I'd be happy to work with you.

Goldilocks

Often before starting work on commissions, I paint something, anything to calm my nerves and if I'm honest, assure myself that yes, I remember how to paint. This is one of those paintings. It's a 14" x 18" oil on linen.

Can't you just imagine this sweet little girl skipping through the woods, finding a 1920's bungalow, walking in as if she owned the place, raiding the refrigerator, leaving ice cream melting on the counter, changing computer passwords, and jumping on the furniture after swinging on the curtains? And can't you then imagine Baby Bear being surprised to find her still asleep in his bed after all of her shenanigans?

The good news is that I have a portrait commission - yay! I've already begun sketching it and will start painting soon. 

Zen Driving

Some people drive for the journey, not the destination.

This is a 20" x 30" oil on linen.

Civic Lesson

Yesterday, I had the privilege of driving our German neighbor to the Department of Homeland Security for her final interview before becoming a citizen of the United States. While waiting with her, she quizzed me on civics. I guess it was fun for her to see me struggle to answer a few of the questions. After living here my entire life, you'd think answering these questions would be easy.

It was such a thrill to get a first hand look as these people from all over the globe, old and young, black, white, and every shade in between. The interviewers opened a door calling out names they struggled to pronounce - - not a single Bob or Sue in the whole bunch. At each name a completely unique person stood tall, if not slightly nervous, each hoping to legally join Team USA and forever celebrate life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. It was completely inspiring.

Purse-onalized

Thirty years ago, I traveled to San Diego to participate in a cross country meet at Balboa Park as a member of the University of Hawaii cross country team. It wasn't my best race but that's neither here nor there. The point of telling this is that during our short stay in San Diego, the team went across the border to Tijuana for an afternoon of shopping. 

While at the Tijuana market, the one thing I wanted to find was a brown leather purse.....which I did....which is also incidentally the most perfect small purse ever invented by man. Mine is also 30 years old, and time is taking its toll on my old formerly perfect small purse.

For whatever reason, probably because of being perpetually broke, because I'm a sucker for punishment,  I've made it a practice to make gifts for loved ones, especially at Christmas time. This year the gift was determined by the perfect leather purse and an outgrown pair of black leather pants. With the clock ticking, I cut the patterns out for five purses and straps by closely matching the design of the 30 year old leather purse from Tijuana. But honestly, time kept getting the best of me, and even though I made small baby steps of progress, it wasn't going to be enough to get everything done by Christmas morning. Plus, I couldn't even figure out how to thread the sewing machine and doing everything by hand would have taken  way too long. Enter the Amazing Reese. Reese saw my dilemma and offered to help. First he threaded the machine God bless him which I couldn't figure out for the life of me. Then he threaded the bobbin. Then he proceeded to sew the front, back, and zipper together.

With daughters out of the house on Christmas eve, and grocery shopping and cooking prep for Christmas dinner completed, I had enough time to hand sew the straps to the body of the purse. Whew.

Now, over the years, Reese and I have gotten mixed reviews from our homemade gifts. Not everyone appreciates the thought, time, and effort that goes into something handcrafted.  I guess some of those negative vibes were floating around in my head and therefore I had very low expectations about how they would be received.

To our delight and my surprise, all four daughters love their new purses!

And remember, we made one for me, too, which I also love and which was used today while taking Tilly (the wonder dog) to do her volunteer work at Methodist Hospital. It really is the perfect purse.

Go Coat

The weather was perfect today for putting on the final clear protective coating of the art heart I created for the American Heart Association's Go Red for Women.

It has taken over two months to get to this point.  It's a huge honor to be asked to participate as an artist on behalf of heart health in women, but it's also extremely nice to be finished with the project. It's going to a new home tomorrow! Yay!

Tilly Goes to School

Tilly is so smart that she was accepted to Rice University! Well, she IS smart, but not that smart. At the request of the school librarian, Tilly went to the library on campus to help students de-stress during finals. Her main "job" is to let everyone pet her, but she also performed almost all of her tricks for the students and faculty who were there.

The librarian gave Tilly an authentic Rice scarf so she's totally legit wherever she goes on campus.

We've gone three times over the past four days and we're leaving soon for one more library visit before Christmas break. It's been a blast.

Peony Leafer

Last week I worked on finishing up this art heart for the American Heart Association's Go Red for Women movement. It's for a particular patron in the Circle of Red Society. She donates money and enthusiasm toward promoting heart health for women, and I donate artistic creativity (and enthusiasm) making this art heart specifically for her, specifically because of her sizable monetary donation. For the edges of the heart, I made my own simple peony leaf design stencil out of thick stiff paper, in this case grocery sacks. Because I wanted to alternate the direction of the leaf without waiting for the oil paint to dry in between painting, I went ahead and made two stencils, orienting them left and right.

It's a conundrum, really, to work on these hearts because all sides of the heart need to be covered in paint and still work together as one piece of art. I had considered painting leaves, trees, and sky the sides, but the issue there was marrying both sides of the heart cohesively. Bringing leaves, trees, and sky to the side wouldn't work in this instance because of the extreme close up of the single peony on the other side of the heart, as seen here. So I made the stencils to tie both paintings together simply, without the whole heart getting bogged down in insignificant detail.

Here's what it looks like with the peony leaf stencils painted around the edge -- not too busy but not too plain, either. I quite like it. It's my first time using stencils in one of my paintings. In his later years, Henri Matisse used paper cut outs and stencils extensively in his work, so I'm in good company using this process. Plus, Matisse is one of the favorite artists of the lady who will eventually get this heart. So there's that.

Pound Cake

When our daughters were small, one of my favorite things about being their mommy was reading books aloud while they snuggled up to me on the sofa. The Little House books were a family favorite. The books are full of wonderful stories about the beauty and harshness of early American frontier life. They are also chock full of lessons if one is inclined toward that sort of thing. That's how we found the Little House Cookbook, because we were looking for supplemental materials to go along with what we were already reading. The pound cake recipe on page 204 is by far my favorite recipe in the whole book. It's based on the following excerpt from Farmer Boy.

That day they made ice cream again, and ate the last cake. Alice said she knew how to make a pound cake. She said she'd make one, and then she was going to go sit in the parlor.
Almanzo thought that wouldn't be any fun....
That afternoon he came into the kitchen to see if the pound cake was done. Alice was taking it out of the oven. It smelled so good that he broke a little piece off the corner. Then Alice cut a slice to hide the broken place, and then they ate two more slices with the last of the ice cream.

Farmer Boy

Just reading that small bit of Farmer Boy makes me kinda wish I had some little ones to snuggle with on the sofa again. Those years sure were magical, though it's also fun watching our daughters mature into women. Our four grown daughters will be home for Thanksgiving tomorrow - all four! My heart and house will be full.

Pound Cake

1 lb butter (2 cups)
1 lb sugar (2 cups)
1 lb eggs (8 medium eggs)
1 lb flour (4 cups)
grated nutmeg

That's about all there is to it. Cream the butter. Add the sugar. Add eggs one by one. Add flour bit by bit but don't over blend. Mixture will be stiff.

Spoon batter into two bread pans. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes. Reduce heat to 325 and bake another 30 minutes. Remove from pan to cool.

The house smells so good when this is baking. It tastes so much better than anything you'd buy at the grocery store.  Sometimes I add a little rum or brandy to the batter (about a cup) but it's quite good without it. Enjoy and Happy Thanksgiving.

Just One More

Almost every Friday, Tilly gets super groomed so we can go visit folks at Methodist Hospital. She is such a good dog and for the most part loves getting groomed. (The only time she pulls away is when I get to her back paws. I think she's ticklish.) Even though it's exhausting to do all of her grooming myself, the pay off is totally worth it. It's amazing how just seeing a dog walk down a corridor affects people for the better.

The Methodist Hospital staff is great. Therapy dogs have been part of their program for years.  They always encourage us to see just one more patient. Just one more. I love it. So does Tilly. This might be the best volunteer job ever.

Peonies in a Glass Vase

As oft happens (with me), this is the second time I've painted this image, the first being on the art heart in the last post, which, incidentally, is not finished, yet. Per the norm, this one  might or might not be finished, yet, also. (Is that too many commas?) It takes me a while to "see" things that need to be tweaked....if they need tweaking at all. I suppose that sometimes I just need to live with the paintings before deciding if they are properly and completely all the way finished.

For the most part, Peonies in a Glass Vase was really fun to paint. The un-fun part was that the paint dried too quickly to easily manipulate before I had time to get to the whole of it on account of not having large enough chunks of time with which to work. This took hours and hours, too many to count, so I broke it up over several days. It's becoming more and more common for me to take several days working on things....maybe because I'm using larger canvases. (?) Consequently, some parts of this got painted over and over in order to keep blending the oil paints.

This painting is quite large, 29" x 32" give or take a quarter inch. Also, it's painted on wood, which was interesting, too, because the wood grain presented its own challenges with ridges and dips and such. Plus, even though I gessoed the wood (using gesso as a verb), the paint absorbed more into the wood than what usually happens when painting on linen.

Here's something I haven't thought about until this very second. Duh. How on earth am I going to wire this for hanging? Hmm....that could be a problem. 

Peony For Your Thoughts

This is the beginning of the work for the art heart for the American Heart Association. It's a peony. A peony is a very complicated flower to paint, by the way. It also happens to be the favorite flower for the lady who will receive this heart for her contribution to Go Red for Women.

This is the other side of the heart - peonies in a vase.

Next I get to decide how to complete the background and the sides of the heart, probably with leaves or something. Hopefully I'll dream about it tonight. Solving problems in my dreams is always fun.